1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a programmed-control-method, and particularly relates to a method for controlling printing format of a printer.
2. Related Art
“Fit to paper” and “N-up” formats are two common control methods applied to conventional printers. The “fit to paper” is to scale and fit a printing page into a specified paper of printing. For example, for a printing page of letter size (21.59*27.94 cm) to be printed on a specified paper of A4 size (21*29.7 cm), the “fit to paper” automatically scales (reduces or enlarges) the printing page to the specified page, so the user has no need to consider and adjust the scaling settings before printing. The “N-up” is to combine and reduce several printing pages of a same size into a single page of the same size for printing. For example, the user can have the contents of four A4 printing pages printed on a single A4 page through the “N-up” setting so as to save papers.
However, though “fit to paper” and “N-up” are practical in printing, they have drawbacks that cause inconvenience to the users. For example, though “fit to paper” can help user scaling a printing page of a size into a specified paper of another size, it cannot help user scaling and printing several printing pages onto a single paper of a different size. The “N-up” is now limited to “a same size only” for all the printing pages and the specified paper. Therefore, they can do nothing when several printing pages are to be printed on a single paper of a different size.
Through software program design, it is a demand to have a printing control method that can include both functions of “fit to paper” and “N-up” and scale and compose several printing pages into any a specified paper so as to meet the needs of users.